I'm in serious trouble need advice ASAP

[Roxannemc]

Ok thanks... um, i don't know.. we all pulled in and i remarked the black drake was out in the side field by the truck lid and i said, is he by himself? i said to my oldest go check on them.. she said he was alone... Lilac was on the deck in front of the tent trailer, the rest of the birds were all up by the coop.. this is what my daughter has said as she was the one who went and checked.

I am just awestruck... such a small, small elapse of time...  this feeder is seriously right by my back gate.. it's practically in my dog yard. They weren't alot of feathers though.. but we cannot find him, no signs, no trail like last time.

Sorry about your drake.Do you trust any of your dogs to be with the birds?.that would probably solve your problem.put fencingOVER your pen too.

 

[Going Quackers]

Sorry about your drake.Do you trust any of your dogs to be with the birds?.that would probably solve your problem.put fencingOVER your pen too.

I actually trust all of them within reason of coarse, i leave my ducks full flight and they have been flying in/out of the dogs fenced area forever.. they just lick them

however they won't stay outside with them, i am going to start looking at pen threads, i don't know what i could put overtop i need a pretty roomy pen ....so i was thinking more a fenced paddock around the barn and there favorite cedars.

 

[Red Barn Farms]

So sorry to hear about this! One thing to always keep in the back of your mind is the dogs. We have a Scottish Terrier who has always seemed fine around our chickens since we've had them, going on 5 months now. I went out one morning extra early to find the little 'trust worthy' terrier down by the barn growling at two of my roosters. You just never know. Duncan, our Scottish terrier knew he had been caught and came back to the house with ears down tail tucked under! Our dog is the best terrier ever but still, they all have that 'hunting' instinct' bred into them. I wasn't worried about him hurting my roosters for two reasons. Number #1 is our fencing for the flocks protection. Number #2 being that both roosters are double the dogs size and I'd lay my money on the roosters,

My only suggestion is to keep the chickens in the dogs pen until you are able to build them their own chicken run. It really is such a small investment in hardware cloth and lumber that will pay off in the long run.

 

[CelticOaksFarm]

Redbarn she isnt loosing chickens, she has a large flock of ducks (thus why she is posting here in the duck area). A small pen wont cut it for the large breed and numbers.


GQ, I am so so sorry. This is sounding like a fox, or maybe a dumped dog that was abused/not fed. Has there been any flooding or new construction in your area recently? That will disturb the predators too and send them hunting in new areas. Sadly this one picked your place, and I bet will return looking for another meal. A radio on a talk channel will help some short term. Voices (not singing) tend to keep them at bay.

 

[Going Quackers]

So sorry to hear about this! One thing to always keep in the back of your mind is the dogs. We have a Scottish Terrier who has always seemed fine around our chickens since we've had them, going on 5 months now. I went out one morning extra early to find the little 'trust worthy' terrier down by the barn growling at two of my roosters. You just never know. Duncan, our Scottish terrier knew he had been caught and came back to the house with ears down tail tucked under! Our dog is the best terrier ever but still, they all have that 'hunting' instinct' bred into them. I wasn't worried about him hurting my roosters for two reasons. Number #1 is our fencing for the flocks protection. Number #2 being that both roosters are double the dogs size and I'd lay my money on the roosters,

My only suggestion is to keep the chickens in the dogs pen until you are able to build them their own chicken run. It really is such a small investment in hardware cloth and lumber that will pay off in the long run.

Thank you as celtic oaks farm said i have ducks.. i had 21 Muscovy which are fairly large birds.. the drakes weight in at 12-15lbs a piece, i am now down to 19, i have lost a 1yo drake and my 3mth old...

My chickens are penned and have been from the get go, i only have 4 of those and they are small so i would never let them loose to many things could catch them, plus drakes and chickens super bad combo.

The ducks being so many and so big making a pen a very expensive investment, something that i truly honest to goodness cannot afford right now.. my birds have always free ranged and been locked up at night.. they wander the fields to clean up the bugs and help reduce the horse paddock of flies, all that is over now.. which is beyond frustrating.

The fence(if you could call it that) separating the dogs from the ducks.. is beyond make shift but the dogs are in/out like yo-yo's and are quite used to the birds being beside them.. of coarse though i never fully trust them but at this point they have less danger with our dogs than this whatever the heck it is killing them.

Redbarn she isnt loosing chickens, she has a large flock of ducks (thus why she is posting here in the duck area). A small pen wont cut it for the large breed and numbers.


GQ, I am so so sorry. This is sounding like a fox, or maybe a dumped dog that was abused/not fed. Has there been any flooding or new construction in your area recently? That will disturb the predators too and send them hunting in new areas. Sadly this one picked your place, and I bet will return looking for another meal. A radio on a talk channel will help some short term. Voices (not singing) tend to keep them at bay.

No, we've actually been horrid almost drought conditions just recently a lightening storm struck our town hall burning it to the ground... i wholeheartly agree w/you something has changed and badly, i have had more than a year of ducks ranging this farm of all ages.. by about 3wks i let the ducks with ducklings out.. nothing and i have lived here 20yrs .. so i know what is around..

I can turn the radio in in the camp trailer it's situated right on the line of where i am 99% sure this thing is coming through...

 

[Going Quackers]

So to update...

My daughter and I in the pouring rain

managed to gerry rig some fencing(using the term beyond loosely) in the dogs yard, we then dragged two pools, a doghouse and the old tugboat sandbox turned upside down for shelter... the yard doesn't have much shade.. not that this would matter in the freakin' rain...

Then we had to catch and carry 19 ducks out the barn into the dog yard..

while they herd well, they are used to being 'let out' so we didn't dare risk having a chase down. Oh my those full grown drakes are big and heavy.. and they fight with you... i don't see how a fox fought down one of them... anyone who knows 'scovies knows about those nails.. even the babies(8wks) have pretty strong ones.. we wore gloves/long sleeves of coarse but still, they slice through like a hot butter knife.

The birds are confused but seem okay that darn bratty black drake was being annoying but things have settled for the most part... i can see them out my son's window and of coarse just walk out my back door lol

Right now i am trying to sort out exactly what my plan is... which i have no idea of, the pen/run/fenced area needs to be connected to their barn our winters are long and fierce so they need that shelter, i also want them to get to the side cedars they are excellent for getting out of the heat.

My issue is trying to sort out how to go about this, it needs to be roomy but predators? i don't even know what i am dealing with.. standard farm fence.. 4ft chain link would be scary unless i can find some by some miracle reasonable priced. hot wire is on my mind to try instead since i need to cover a good distance but i'm overwhelmed i admit it.

I appreciate everyone's kind words and help.

 

[Miss Lydia]

So to update...

My daughter and I in the pouring rain

managed to gerry rig some fencing(using the term beyond loosely) in the dogs yard, we then dragged two pools, a doghouse and the old tugboat sandbox turned upside down for shelter... the yard doesn't have much shade.. not that this would matter in the freakin' rain...

Then we had to catch and carry 19 ducks out the barn into the dog yard..

while they herd well, they are used to being 'let out' so we didn't dare risk having a chase down. Oh my those full grown drakes are big and heavy.. and they fight with you... i don't see how a fox fought down one of them... anyone who knows 'scovies knows about those nails.. even the babies(8wks) have pretty strong ones.. we wore gloves/long sleeves of coarse but still, they slice through like a hot butter knife.

The birds are confused but seem okay that darn bratty black drake was being annoying but things have settled for the most part... i can see them out my son's window and of coarse just walk out my back door lol

Right now i am trying to sort out exactly what my plan is... which i have no idea of, the pen/run/fenced area needs to be connected to their barn our winters are long and fierce so they need that shelter, i also want them to get to the side cedars they are excellent for getting out of the heat.

My issue is trying to sort out how to go about this, it needs to be roomy but predators? i don't even know what i am dealing with.. standard farm fence.. 4ft chain link would be scary unless i can find some by some miracle reasonable priced. hot wire is on my mind to try instead since i need to cover a good distance but i'm overwhelmed i admit it.

I appreciate everyone's kind words and help.

I am not sure on fencing hot wire might be the way to go, I keep thinking this maybe a fox since if it's got kits it maybe brave enough to come that close for an easy meal. I'd would try and get a trap i f you can catch it you may eleminate the problem.

 

[Going Quackers]

I am not sure on fencing hot wire might be the way to go, I keep thinking this maybe a fox since if it's got kits it maybe brave enough to come that close for an easy meal. I'd would try and get a trap i f you can catch it you may eleminate the problem.

Could be, i dunno.. i need to find out who i get ahold of around here to get a trap for that sort of predator. I have no idea where it's den would be... i guess i need to learn a bit more about foxes? How does one hot wire for birds? i mean they can duck under lol i have enough silly drakes who try that with the horse paddock..

 

[jdywntr]

Sorry to hear about this again. I think hot wire for fencing is like 4" then 8" etc. You can go to TSC site and search for eletric fence and they have an instructional thing for different species. I know that there are horses there but are they yours? If I owned the property that we are on I would have built a duck house in the middle of the pasture and allow a donkey or 2 to roam around the whole thing. I don't know if horses are as anti-predator as donkeys are though.

Is there a way (and if big enough) for you to make them an area inside of your dog pen so that your dogs can get around the entire duck area in the middle? That should deter most predators, just having your dogs there. Though I have read of packs of coyotes where one will distract a LGD and another will enter the area and attack an animal. Storey's Guide has a plan for electric fencing for foxes. Don't recall if it's the chicken or duck version.

 

[Miss Lydia]

Could be, i dunno.. i need to find out who i get ahold of around here to get a trap for that sort of predator. I have no idea where it's den would be... i guess i need to learn a bit more about foxes? How does one hot wire for birds? i mean they can duck under lol i have enough silly drakes who try that with the horse paddock..

I know some folks on here have bought the poultry fencing from Premier 1 you can get solar or elec. box for the hot wire. I think it's pretty expensive though. Might put up regular welded wire and run a hot wire around bottom and top, since i don't have hot wire i really don't know what is the best way to go about it.